The Guidebook cost just a quarter back then.

I linked to some fun home movies of the 1939 New York World’s Fair a while back, and now I got my coarse yet practiced hands on a copy of that event’s official guidebook.

The book (which is the shape and thickness of an old-school TV Guide) is pretty straightforward, touting the highlights that drew 4.4 million visitors, with info on exhibits about technology, medicine, science and government in addition to amusements.

One oddity from the “Amusement Area” that jumped off the page is called “Little Miracle Town.” An excerpt:

“Morris Gest’s Little Miracle Town, occupying 36,000 square feet was brought over from Europe by a specially chartered ship. A miniature community, complete in every detail even to the diminutive organ in the church, its one hundred and twenty-five midget inhabitants have their own tiny restaurant, their city hall, their own theatre, art gallery and railroad station.

Other features include a midget circus, motion picture studio, garage, radio station, ballroom, guard barracks, Punch and Judy show and toy and doll factory. Never in the history of any exposition has there been a Midget Village as spectacular as this one. Morris Gest, famous producer of Chauve Souris and other successful shows, toured all Europe to secure the greatest ‘little people’ for Little Miracle Town.”